A routine check of my Event Viewer shows the entry "The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block."

Only a day before, I'd run a chkdsk d:, and that didn't report anything. WinXP desktop was up when I returned to PC after chkdsk had finished. I deliberately did not use the /f switch, as I wanted to seeif there were any problems.

So:

Assuming that 'bad block' hadn't just arisen, how do I square the two?

And what if anything should I now do please?

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

I would go to your hard drive manufacturer's site and download their diagnostics utility.

Usually bad blocks are a sign of a drive that is failing.
You should be able to get the drive exchanged if it is still under warranty.
You can use the results of the diagnostic as evidence of failure.

Also you can try the /f switch & or Right click the drive icon, Properties, tools tab, run Error Checking.

The manufacturer's diagnostic would be the best tho. Here is an overview of the major makers:

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

If you do not know your drive make run Belarc:

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Look under: Drives

Originally Posted by jephree

I would go to your hard drive manufacturer's site and download their diagnostics utility.

Usually bad blocks are a sign of a drive that is failing.
You should be able to get the drive exchanged if it is still under warranty.
You can use the results of the diagnostic as evidence of failure.

Also you can try the /f switch & or Right click the drive icon, Properties, tools tab, run Error Checking.

The manufacturer's diagnostic would be the best tho. Here is an overview of the major makers:

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

If you do not know your drive make run Belarc:

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Look under: Drives

Thanks, I'll take that approach asap.

Do you have any thoughts on my first question please? I had thought I coud rely on chkdsk to report such problems?

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

Originally Posted by jephree

I would go to your hard drive manufacturer's site and download their diagnostics utility.

Usually bad blocks are a sign of a drive that is failing.
You should be able to get the drive exchanged if it is still under warranty.
You can use the results of the diagnostic as evidence of failure.

Also you can try the /f switch & or Right click the drive icon, Properties, tools tab, run Error Checking.

I've obtained PowerMax.exe from the Maxtor site and made a floppy. But I decided to try your Error Checking suggestion first. It ran on next reboot, and produced a few interesting messages. I took a photo:



I checked out a couple of those files, and both seem OK. For example this one:
D:\Docs\SUNDRY\Music-MP3-etc\Lyrics\AllFrank-List\SunshineCake.txt opened OK.

In Event Viewer afterwards I could see no further messages about 'Bad Block'.

Any further observations/insights would be appreciated please.

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

Are things working OK?

What did PowerMax say?

Originally Posted by jephree

Are things working OK?

What did PowerMax say?

Thanks for the follow-up. As you'll see from my update below, any hand-holding I can get will be very welcome! This post is a bit lengthy though, so hope you'll bear with me.

It's now definite that HD0, the 4 year old MAXTOR 6L060J3 60 GB HD that came with my PC, is at risk of failing. It contains my two most important partitions:

HD0
---
C: my Win XP Home OS and about half my program files
D: most of my data and the other half of my program files.

The evidence so far includes
- Event Viewer reporting Disk > Bad block
- chkdsk reporting bad block/bad sectors
- HDTach failing during its Sequential Read (part of Quick Test)
- HDTune reporting failure on key tests:

HD Tune: MAXTOR 6L060J3 Health
------------------------------
(HD0, partitions C & D. This is the suspect drive.)

ID Current Worst ThresholdData Status
(01) Raw Read Error Rate 100 253 20 0 Ok
(03) Spin Up Time 67 64 20 4174 Ok
(04) Start/Stop Count 100 100 8 321 Ok
(05) Reallocated Sector Count 99 99 20 9 Failed
(07) Seek Error Rate 100 1 23 0 Failed
(09) Power On Hours Count 60 60 1 26756 Ok
(0A) Spin Retry Count 100 100 0 0 Ok
(0B) Calibration Retry Count 100 100 20 0 Ok
(0C) Power Cycle Count 100 100 8 284 Ok
(0D) Soft Read Error Rate 100 77 23 0 Ok
(C2) Temperature 82 75 42 47 Ok
(C3) Hardware ECC Recovered 100 1 0 39294398 Ok
(C4) Reallocated Event Count 100 100 20 0 Ok
(C5) Current Pending Sector 99 99 20 9 Ok
(C6) Offline Uncorrectable 100 253 0 0 Ok
(C7) Ultra DMA CRC Error Count 193 193 0 7 Ok
Power On Time : 26756
Health Status : Failed

For comparison, here's the report on HD1 (partitions E & F) which is
physically identical to above, about 2.5 yrs old.

HD Tune: MAXTOR 6L060J3 Health
-------------------------------

ID Current Worst ThresholdData Status
(01) Raw Read Error Rate 100 253 20 0 Ok
(03) Spin Up Time 67 64 20 4131 Ok
(04) Start/Stop Count 100 100 8 242 Ok
(05) Reallocated Sector Count 100 100 20 0 Ok
(07) Seek Error Rate 100 100 23 0 Ok
(09) Power On Hours Count 67 67 1 22104 Ok
(0A) Spin Retry Count 100 100 0 0 Ok
(0B) Calibration Retry Count 100 100 20 0 Ok
(0C) Power Cycle Count 100 100 8 231 Ok
(0D) Soft Read Error Rate 100 100 23 0 Ok
(C2) Temperature 84 78 42 43 Ok
(C3) Hardware ECC Recovered 100 100 0 3805 Ok
(C4) Reallocated Event Count 100 100 20 0 Ok
(C5) Current Pending Sector 100 100 20 0 Ok
(C6) Offline Uncorrectable 100 253 0 0 Ok
(C7) Ultra DMA CRC Error Count 200 200 0 0 Ok
Power On Time : 22104
Health Status : Ok

I also did an error scan on HD0 and it reports 4 bad blocks.

Also, here's the 'Info' tab for HD0:
http://www.terrypin.dial.pipex.com/I...e-HD0-Info.gif

(A side issue is that Active entry, bottom right, which is the same for both HD0 and HD1, which says I'm only using
ATA/100 not 133.)

I've downloaded Powermax and made the floppy, but haven't yet run it. To be honest, I'm now nervous about running anything that might risk complete loss, before I get my act together. Without truly understanding it, I read stuff about 'stressing' the HD, and fret that maybe PowerMax might do that. Sort of tip it over the edge! In any case, my action plan is now clear. I'll shop for another HD today (maybe not a Maxtor this time) and aim to install it asap.

Meanwhile, I need to get myself some security fast. Can't face the prospect of a re-install! Luckily I added a new HD only a couple of months ago, so I do have plenty of space.

The other partitions are:
HD1 (60 GB; identical to HD0)
-----------------------------
E: Bootable copy of OS, but now 2 months old
F: Backups (Most data, and most settings, but not programs.)

HD2 (200 GB Maxtor, via new PCI card)
-------------------------------------
J: Pictures and Music mainly

My data backups are pretty good. But I haven't been backing up C:\Program Files and D:\Program Files. I don't use OE except when forced to for some reason. My Agent email/newsreader folders are all backed up nightly.

I have PQ PM 7.0 and PQ DI 2002. Rarely used, and have to re-study manuals when I do so! I made a direct copy (not image) of Win XP Home onto E: a couple of months ago, with PowerQuest Drive Image 2002. Apart from an initial 'reassurance test', I haven't used it since. But one of my jobs today will be to update that copy on E: That's assuming these bad sectors/blocks don't screw that up?

Any further help from anyone would be greatly appreciated please.


--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

Hi Terry,

Just a couple of comments for you:

Firstly, four bad blocks isn't many and most hard disks will normally keep running for a fair while with such a problem. Having said that, the extent to which you are affected depends very much on what data is written in those areas of the hard disk (the 'bad blocks'). Bad blocks are physical sectors of the hard disk that can no longer be read from, effectively meaning that your data is corrupted. Although four isn't many, the problem will definitely not get any better. Because bad blocks are PHYSICAL rather than logical damage, there's nothing in Windows (or any other software) that can repair the problem. And it will get worse. I can't really explain why but bad blocks DO spread. It's the first signs of an impending drive failure as you've already realised.

Secondly, because the bad blocks are physical damage on that drive, as I've described, only that drive is affected. Therefore, assuming that the damage wasn't caused by hard disk controller errors originating from your motherboard, then you have no reason to be worried about the same damage affecting your backup Windows installation on the E: drive.

By the way, great backup system! I guess you're using your PC for more than the occasional email or letter to the Bank - I don't think I've ever heard of a home PC being backed up THAT well before!

DJNafey (also in West Sussex)

Thanks a lot for that helpful reply. I'm also getting valuable assistance from Rod Speed over in the comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage newsgroup and elsewhere.

Appreciate your encouraging comments about my extensive backup. Fear is my main motivator <g>. But I was still not strong on OS backups. Not compared to many I read about who seem to have up-to-the-minute images of their OS convniently at hand for instant recovery!

However, I used Drive Image 2002 yesterday to copy (not image) my OS from C (partition 0 on the dodgy disk, HD0) to E (partition 0 on HD1). It took half a day to do it, but I am now composing this under a grey East Grinstead Saturday morning sky after booting into that copy.

BTW, Rod posted last night that he reckons I booted up the 'wrong way'. He says the correct procedure was to physically disconnect HD0 the first time I rebooted after making the copy. But I just responded to the standard prompts you get during boot-up, and choosing the alternative. During the 'count-down' period set by boot.ini, before making the new copy of C onto E I was being offered 2 OS options:
"Windows XP Media Center Edition"
"Windows XP Media Center Edition (#1)"

After making the new copy, for some reason it added a third
"Windows XP Media Center Edition (#2)"
But on examination of boot.ini via Properties > Advanced > Startup & Recovery > Settings > System Startup, I saw that was a duplication of '...(#1)'. So I edited it, and boot.ini now looks like this:
http://www.terrypin.dial.pipex.com/I...omCopiedOS.gif

Anyway, that issue aside, it's good news, I have an up-to-date working OS alternative, in case HD0 dies before I reach the end of this sentence! As I am definitely going to buy a new HD, I don't suppose it matters whether I continue to work here or go back to the original OS? But one aspect I do find confusing is the apparent reversal of the drive letters that has taken place.

http://www.terrypin.dial.pipex.com/I...ootedFromE.gif

I read that as saying Disk 0 (the bad one) now holds *E* and D, instead of C and D. And, 'Healthy (Boot)' in the box for Disk 1 confirms that I am now booted into the OS on Disk 1,i.e. the freshly-copied OS which was on E but is now on C? Talk about confusing!

To crystallise my grasp of this 'reversal', I've just added a file, C:\Test.txt, with contents "This file
was added while booted to copied OS, and saved in C:. I'm not sure whether that means it is physically now on HD0 or HD1!" I'll take a look at it after re-booting to the 'original' OS, which I've currently left as the default. I've also just changed the desktop colour here from blue to sea-green, so that next time I boot-up I'll have a more obvious indication of where I am.

Have a good weekend, and thanks again for your help.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, West Sussex, UK